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Page 75 - Two blasts of the horn signified "death! death!" three beats of the drum, "cut it off!" and a single beat from another drum, announced "the head has dropped ! " Powerless as we were, amid the fearful darkness around, to hinder such atrocities, we could only sigh and pray that our captivity might bring about a better state of things.

Page 316 - These and his method of descending his shaft are shown in the sketch annexed. He rarely makes his shaft more than three feet in diameter. Planting one end of his digger into a recess in the shaft he places the other end diagonally against the opposite side of the shaft, and supporting himself by it, his foot is placed in another of the recesses. He then lengthens out his body and fixes his back firmly against the side of the shaft. Thus supported, he removes the digger, plants it in another recess...

Page 72 - The most dreadful of the Ashanti festivals, Bantama, or ' death-wake,' now approached. The king went early in the morning of February 5th, to Bantama, where the remains of his deceased predecessors were preserved in a long building, approached by a gallery, and partitioned into small cells, the entrances of which were hung with silken curtains. In these apartments reposed the skeletons of the kings, fastened together with gold wire, and placed in richly ornamented coffins, each being surrounded...

Page 65 - * " 'tis a miracle — they are children of the gods," we heard them exclaiming, and often the enquiry, " which is the wife ? " was made especially by the women, who could not take their eyes off the little Rosa. The queen mother was passing as we arrived, with the glass and silver ornaments, followed by the eunuchs with the women. It appeared that the prohibition to look at them was again in force, for the men retired, and only a few mohammedans were allowed to remain beside us. The ladies appeared...

Page 258 - Slightly wounded, many of the carriers, weakened by hunger, threw away their loads, and nearly all of us have lost clothing and such provisions as we had. The march to Ekwanta has been one of great difficulty and privation, the hammock-men being, too- weak to perform duty and the column hampered with large numbers of- persons who followed from Coomassie. We are halting here for two days to recruit and we hope to reach Cape Coast in ten days' time. We have had letters sent to Officer Commanding column...

Page 72 - ... had given him most pleasure during his life. On this occasion every skeleton was placed on a chair in his cell to receive the royal visitor; who, on entering, offered it food; after which a band played the favourite melodies of the departed. The poor victim selected as a sacrifice, with a knife thrust through his cheeks, was then dragged forward and slain, the king washing the skeleton with his blood. Thus was each cell visited in turn, sacrifice after sacrifice being offered, till evening closed...

Page 72 - We had heard the blowing of horns and beating of drums throughout the day, and were told that nearly thirty men had been slain. These alas ! were not all, for at six o'clock after the king had returned, the horn and the drum again sounded, betokening that more victims were yet to fall, and far into the night the melancholy sound continued. Two blasts of the horn signified

Page 198 - Our first business every morning was to serve out the rations to the men, who came up to the table one by one. Some were too weak to do this, and lay about on the ground. "All were worn to skin and bone, but there were a few who, to relieve their hunger, had been eating poisonous herbs, which caused great swellings over the body. At last the rations consisted of a cup of linseed meal and a block of tinned meat about two inches square. Occasionally some native women would come outside the fort and...

Page 291 - ... operations were not hurried on, and the difficulties due to weather, the state of the roads, and fatigue, overcome at once, as they were overcome three weeks later when the troops forming the relief column were moved up at a rate quite unknown to the column since its formation. Why was there so long a halt at Prahsu, which is certainly not the most pleasant of places to spend a fortnight at ? It was said that the delay was due to waiting for a gun, which after all was not employed in raising...